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Worldly Philosophers
"Ideas..." wrote John Maynard Keynes, "when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood.... Practical men, who believe themselves... exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist....The power of vested interests is vastly exaggerated compared with the gradual encroachment of ideas." This monthly series of commentaries, produced in cooperation with Vienna's Institute for Human Sciences (IWM), elucidates the underlying intellectual currents of our times.
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The Truth about Negotiations
Alexios Arvanitis Series: The Worldly Philosophers 2012-01-24At the EU’s recent summit in Brussels, British Prime Minister David Cameron said, “What is on offer isn’t in Britain’s interests, so I didn’t agree to it,” as if agreement solely depended upon whether interests are satisfied. In fact, principles, morality, and simple respect for the truth guide agreement as much as interests do.... read Comments: 3 Recommended: 0 Read: 9208
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When China Rules
Ivan Krastev Series: The Worldly Philosophers 2011-12-28While America’s allure is partly its ability to transform others into Americans, the Chinese have tried not to change the world, but to adjust to it. If China becomes a superpower, the Chinese will not seek to remake the global order, but rather to extract the greatest possible benefit from existing rules.... read Comments: 11 Recommended: 0 Read: 18680
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Politics and Theatre
Vaclav Havel Series: The Worldly Philosophers 2011-12-19As politician, playwright, poet, dissident, and essayist, Václav Havel – who died on December 18 – led one of the most remarkable and influential lives of modern times. In March 1997, while serving as President of the Czech Republic, Havel offered the following assessment of the intersection of politics and playwriting in his unique career.... read Comments: 0 Recommended: 1 Read: 12168
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The Forgotten Twentieth-Century
Jan-Werner Mueller Series: The Worldly Philosophers 2011-11-29Ordinary Europeans long trusted elites with the business of democracy – and even seemed to prefer unelected elites. If they now want to modify the social contract, change ought to be based on a clear, historically grounded sense of which innovations European democracy might really need – and of whom Europeans really trust to hold power.... read Comments: 6 Recommended: 1 Read: 9572
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Hail to the Technocrats
Fabrizio Tassinari Series: The Worldly Philosophers 2011-11-13
The rise of unelected technocrats to political power in Greece and Italy suggests, at least superficially, that the old taboo against technocratic governments pursuing an EU-dictated agenda has been shattered. But voters in the battered lands of the eurozone seem to have reached their own damning conclusions about their elected leaders months ago.... read Comments: 8 Recommended: 1 Read: 15906
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The Language of Global Protest
Jan-Werner Mueller Series: The Worldly Philosophers 2011-10-24Indignation has become a watchword for movements in France, Spain, and elsewhere. And language matters here: indignation, unlike outrage, suggests that some social actors – a government or elites in general – have violated shared norms or moral understandings.... read Comments: 2 Recommended: 1 Read: 14077
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Democratic Hysteria
Pranab Bardhan Series: The Worldly Philosophers 2011-09-06
In recent political impasses that paralyzed the world’s two largest democracies, India and the United States, both countries’ usually clear-sighted leaders, to paraphrase William Butler Yeats, lacked all conviction, while the misguided and the shallow were full of passionate intensity. Indeed, that passion shows little sign of waning.... read Comments: 3 Recommended: 0 Read: 13589
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Against Simplification
Norman Manea Series: The Worldly Philosophers 2011-08-15Americans might have a genius for simplification, but the quest for it has become a global trend, one that continues to conquer new territories, just as blue jeans once did. Nowhere is this trend more damaging than in today’s mercantile approach to art.... read Comments: 2 Recommended: 3 Read: 17215
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The Talmud and Greek Debt
Mario I. Blejer Series: The Worldly Philosophers 2011-07-19
There are two ways to look at Greece’s majestically unsustainable sovereign-debt mountain – both correct, though difficult to reconcile. In these circumstances, the Talmud, the ancient repository of Jewish legal commentary – and one of the oldest sources of human thought on morality and economic activity – might hold the key.... read Comments: 2 Recommended: 0 Read: 17935
| A Clockwork Chemistry | Guy Kahane 
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